Fruit

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT FRUIT - PAGE 5

PUNE: The suicide ridden Vidarbha region may soon emerge as the chief supplier of orange juice and concentrate. A Swiss company, Citrus International, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state's marketing department to set up an orange processing plant with the capacity to crush four-lakh tonnes annually. The plant at Amravati will be set up with an investment of about Rs 170 crore. ET had first reported this in April 2008, when the company was conducting surveys in Vidarbha.

NEW YORK: Get ready for designer tomatoes! Scientists have identified a gene which they claim can change the shape of the juicy fruit -- for example, it can turn a round tomato into a long and thin one. According to the researchers at Ohio State University, the gene, known as SUN, plays a crucial role in the elongated shape of various tomato varieties. "Tomatoes are the model in this emerging field of fruit morphology studies. We are trying to understand what kind of genes caused the enormous increase in fruit size and variation in fruit shape as tomatoes were domesticated.

Ours is a juice-guzzling nation. That's natural in the world's second largest fruit growing country. With 50 million tonnes a year, we have a lot of fruit. And yet in the midst of this abundance, juice is still a middle-class luxury food. A branded one-litre carton sells for upwards of Rs 65 while a single serve pack is for Rs 15. That means for the average-sized family, juice cannot be an item of daily consumption. But why should they be forced to lose out on this healthy food?

Absence of proper cold chains and associated logistics in India leads to wastage of fresh produce to the extent of 25-30%, annual equivalent of over 50,000 crore. About 30-40% of these losses occur in farmers' fields and in packing, the remaining in transportation and marketing. A study by Indian School of Business , Hyderabad, revealed that more fruit, vegetables, poultry and dairy products end up in trash bins than on dining tables. India has had only antediluvian cold storage industry , comprising of 5,101 cold stores with a capacity of 21.7 million tonnes (as on December 31, 2006)

PUNE: According to the preliminary estimates, litchi production in Bihar, that grows 60 percent of the country's litchi production, has gone up by 50 percent to 60 percent over the previous year. "Due to very favourable climatic conditions coupled with intermittent rainfall, litchi production was record high this year," said Dr Vishal Nath , director, National Research Centre for Litchi , Muzafarrpur. Rajesh Pardeshi, Pune-based litchi trader said, "Litchi arrivals in Pune have doubled this year as compared to the previous year.

Pune: Apples may be more affordable this year, but deficient rainfall has robbed the fruit of much of its crunchiness, explaining the fall in prices despite lower supply. The best quality apples are available at aboutRs. 1,500 (20 kg box), compared with Rs. 1,700 or so last season, even as the output has fallen by about a third. Himachal Pradesh, the country's top apple growing state, is likely to produce 500-540 million kg of the fruit this year, compared with 700 million kg last year.

HYDERABAD: Galla Foods, the premier exporter of tropical fruit purees, concentrates and fresh fruits has launched "Galla Thick Mango" (GTM) nectar, a fruit beverage targeting the mango loving consumers. "Galla Mango will certainly satisfy the consumer's need for the best product both in terms of form and content. GTM nectar's unique formulation brings a wholesome, healthy taste of the most luscious mangoes with the highest fruit pulp content of 25 per cent in the category, as compared to 25 per cent offered by other nectar brands and even lesser fruit content of 10 per cent for the fruit drink category," Ramachandra N Galla, Chairman of the company told mediapersons after the launch.

DARANGIREE (ASSAM): The century-old banana market here has an unusual unit of measurement ? the bicycle. That has been the convention here, banana grower Hitler Sangma told ET. Banana growers from neighbouring Meghalaya flock to this market, in the Goalpara district, thrice a week. It has an annual turnover of around Rs 5 crore. Every week more than 2,500 bicycles loaded with the fruit reaches the market. Each cycle carries five-nine tokh (bunch) of bananas, said Mr Sangma.

PUNE: Although India is the world's largest banana producer, it does not figure in the international trade primarily because the fruit does not look good. Hence it has few takers in the international market. The Indian banana is hardy but is handled so roughly that this disfigures the fruit, with the skin turning black and blotchy. However, this situation is changing as the country slowly wakes up to its potential in banana exports. Efforts have now begun to take on the competition from traditional exporters like the Philippines, Latin American and Caribbean countries.

NEW DELHI: With the summer setting in, strawberry plants are fast turning into proverbial money plants in the UK and other countries where the prices of the delicate fruit have started soaring, inducing many an Indian firm to grow more for exporting the commodity to these countries. It is learnt that at least three firms had applied for permission to import nearly 13 lakh plants of strawberry from Europe and the US for growing in India. However, the agriculture ministry has allowed only Delhi-based Sheel Biotech to import six lakh tissue culture plants of strawberry and denied permission to Mizoram's Zopar Exports and Delhi's Dev Bhumi Cold Chain for want of dealer licence.